– What is the “academic tone”?

The “academic tone” is how your writing voice sounds in a formal piece where you are addressing a wide academic audience. In other words, it is assumed that you are writing an essay because you want to join in a conversation with other scholars who are interested in your topic but may not (yet) share your views on it. (Maybe you are only writing because your professor requires it–but play along with the idea anyway!)

Because you are speaking to others in this professional setting, “academic tone” usually requires that you:

– Avoid using the second person. E.g., instead of saying, “If you read this passage on Galileo, you can see that…,” try to rephrase into something like, “Given Galileo’s ideas on…, it becomes clear that….” This change makes your paper open up from being addressed to a single person (the “you”) to a wider audience. (More on 1st and 2nd person usage here.)

– Be to-the-point. Because you are writing professionally, your writing has to be very focused. Edit your work so that it doesn’t sound like you are talking (edit out run-on sentences). Avoid “fluff”–all that extra padding of unrelated ideas we add in when we are speaking or thinking aloud. Keep straight to the point.

– Avoid colloquialisms. Replace any expressions that are too casual, and definitely avoid clichés (here is an excellent post discussing this) as you write. As always, never, ever use “text message language” (u instead of you, nite instead of night, etc.) in any formal writing.

For more on writing in the academic tone, see a short handout here and a longer explanation here.

Posted in: Assignments, Structure & Style